This activity is for prompting discussion about effective practices for establishing and sustaining role clarity and strong governance.
For some of the below, depending on the public library, there are overlapping board-trustee and library director responsibilities, such as participating in community engagement, partnership development, and strategic planning. Discuss the importance of role clarity and what role clarity may look like for overlapping responsibilities.
| What | Who |
Set high-level strategic directions | |
Participate in gathering community feedback | |
Meet with key stakeholders, such as the chair of the school board | |
Build partnerships for strengthening library services, such as with local government management or other operational leaders of community-based organizations | |
Provide expert advisement on library trends for strategic planning | |
Develop and manage the process for achieving strategic outcomes | |
Set foundational policies, such as a code of conduct | |
Closing the public library on short notice due to a crisis. | |
Review policies | |
Provide appropriate level of informational background (trends and issues, statistics, proposed budget, financial reports, legislation, correspondence, etc.) | |
Manage staff, including recruitment, hiring, lay-offs, and staff development required for meeting strategic direction | |
Establish operational policies or procedures | |
Support and participate in strategic planning | |
Manage the budget | |
Manage operations, such as facility needs, space design and use, collections, programming, and information and reader’s advisory services | |
Evaluate outcomes |